Developers want to buy back some of my garden

[NadiaWadia]

I'm only talking about a tiny amount, a medium sized flower bed's worth!

Bought this house earlier this year, on a new(ish) development, built about 5 years ago. Bought from previous occupants, not the developers.

My road is a cul-de-sac, and has still not been adapted (adopted?) by the local council, which is a bit of a pain. Our semi and our neighbours' semi sort of curve round a bend in the road. There is a front garden, that we share with no fencing, and right at the front of our properties there is a flower bed shared with these neighbours, right by the pavement. Apparently the developers had a meeting with the local authority who have some concerns about driving visibility (?, don't understand really) and want to extend the road/pavement (not sure which) a little way into our front gardens, otherwise they won't agree to adapt the road.

The developers are sending a representative round next week to meet with our neighbours and us to get us to agree.

I am not totally thrilled, as we will lose a tree, also I have concerns over loss of privacy as this will mean pedestrians getting closer to our house etc. But on the other hand I would rather the road was adapted as I understand if it's not then we as owners are liable to maintain the road (is that right? or is it the developers?), also I think the road being unadapted is delaying BT from installing superfast broadband, which the next road that our cul-de-sac is off already has.

We have only just bought this and can't believe we have to have more tedious legal stuff done. I don't want to involve my conveyancing solicitor TBH as he was very slow and unresponsive during the (straightforward) purchase of the house.

What should I be asking the developers for? I was thinking legal representation for neighbours and us, paid for by them, plus a bit of financial compensation? Ask them to move the tree, rather than destroy it?

Anyone had similar, or know the legal position?

Don't undersell your land, they need it. Its adopt, and means the council take it over for maintenance etc.

My dd recently bought a h0use in an unadopted road. They almost lost it as 2 mortgage companies wouldn’t lend on the property for precisely this reason. The vendors even had a mortgage with one of them, but apparently they had changed the lending criteria.
My point is, living on an adopted road verses an unadopted road may well be much more beneficial to you in the long term.

It sounds as though the original developers didn't build the road to the proper spec that was in the planning permission.

So now that they have gone back to the council, the council are telling them to sort it out before they'll adopt the road.

Generally speaking, having the council adopt your street is a good thing so your end game is probably to agree to it but to get as much as you can from it.

I would suggest that a monetary compensation and also ensuring that they make good your garden as well (ie moving your tree etc) would be appropriate.

Thank you, what sort of figure did you think? Just very roughly? And I presume the deeds (?) would need to be altered etc?

I am going to emphasise the inconvenience etc to the rep from the developers, but I don't really know how much it would affect the house value, if at all.

I'm sorry that I can't help with that. My guess would be at least in the single figure thousands (take whatever number they suggest and probably at least double it to start a negotiation).

Along with making good your garden and, as you say, paying for any changes to the deeds.

You will also probably need to inform your mortgage company and the developer should pay for any costs to do with dealing with your lender as well.

If its not worth a lot of money would you consider having them deal with the privacy issue as part of the deal. Basically a nice brick wall.

You should have them paying your legal fees. the land itself is worth something between whatever the reduction in the value of your house is after your garden has been reduced, and the potential liability of the developer to all householders as they are likely to breach their contractual obligation to have the road adopted. Beware though. If it's too much trouble for them developments tend to be done by single use companies, set up purely for that development. They may simply close it down and walk away.

Being responsible for an unadopted road is a PITA. My parents lived next to one & it was full of muddy potholes, which were icy in the winter & a nightmare for your car suspension & ankles. It eventually got resurfaced after the residents got together & paid to have it done, after many years of struggling with the poor condition of it. It took them about 30 years to resolve (after my parents moved on - no idea how when it was originally laid).

I wouldn't choose to live on an unadopted road unless I was the only party to have access to it & be responsible for its upkeep.

Push for the other party to pay all fees though. And pay you a sum for the loss of the portion of your garden.

I agree with points about an unadopted road- it is worth quite a lot to get this resolved. Just ensure the agreement to sell the land is conditional on the road being adopted. You don't want to make the transfer only to find it doesn't happen

The bank your mortgage is with will have to agree to any alteration of the deeds and may want to do a revaluation of the property especially if your equity in the house is low.

If I were you I'd probably make contact with the council myself and try to establish if what the developers are saying is correct - whether this is needed for the council to adopt the road (which you definitely want) or for some other purpose that doesn't actually benefit you, and whether taking some of your garden is the only solution or just the easiest one (for them). But I am a suspicious person.

I think I should ring my lender and see what they say, our equity is quite good though, 25%. They didn't make anything of the unadopted road during the buying process though, and our solicitor told us it was normal for a new(ish) estate. I would obviously prefer for the road to be adopted.

Thanks Disford for the brick wall suggestion, but I'm not sure about this as the whole estate has open front gardens, like most modern estates.

I could just do without all the hassle really, we are both very busy at work etc and I feel the developers should be sorting it all out, seems it must be their error?

Thanks raspberry for your suggestion to contact the council, I didn't think of that!

TBH, if the loss of the small portion of your garden is definitely going to guarantee that the road will be made, paved, drained & adopted, I'd say it would be well worth the loss of the part of your garden. Like I said upthread, an unadopted road in a nightmare. But I agree with @anniegun - the transfer of your land would need to be conditional on the guarantee that that would happen.

TBH if the want to adopt the road I would even give it to them .

Much easier to sell no liability for rd off load that responsiblity as fast as you can .